As we discussed earlier in one of our articles, the episodes of war and human conflicts are persistent when it comes to the rich tapestry of history. And while there are many variables to this sheer scope of warfare, there are a few commanders whose names have entered the annals of history – as men who maintained their impressive ‘success rate’ on the battlefields throughout the ages. The video below, concocted by Youtuber Cottereau, tries its best to present this ‘globalized’ list of generals who were successful by virtue of winning the most battles (as recorded in Wikipedia).

It should be noted however that the list is exclusively based on 10,624 articles from Wikipedia that cover around a whopping 12,000 battles. As Cottereau said, he created a query that searches every battle article in Wikipedia and identifies the general that won the battle. The query was created for the data obtained from Wikipedia versions in 32 languages, including Chinese, English, French, Hindi, and Arabic.

Essentially, the entire list is solely based on Wikipedia and its interpretation of the outcome of battles. Of course, as history enthusiasts, we should understand that most battles were often subsets of expansive military campaigns as opposed to solitary engagements of armies. Furthermore many of these actions have always been nuanced in terms of both strategic and tactical victories, often influenced by later (or earlier) political maneuvers. Simply put, while the list covers the most successful generals in history, the scope of generalship is more complex than just numbers pertaining to outcomes.

Nevertheless, the feat by Cottereau in obtaining the data from the sheer volume of source materials is certainly praiseworthy. And talking of battles, in case one is interested, the YouTuber had previously also visually mapped over 1,000 battles across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The video is presented below –

Video Sources: Cottereau (YouTube)

Featured Image Source: SikhiArt